bkroz

Opinions differ...! And so do ride experiences. From day to day, hour to hour, or even minute by minute if it starts hailing.

And then there's a healthy fraction of the ride's multi-million dollar arm equipment being used on the "Green" mission.

If you've never been on a truly aggressive thrill ride and then ride Mission: Space, you may just discover an undiagnosed pre-existing condition the hard way. What indication would any of us have to imagine we might have a pre-existing heart condition or something? Why would we submit ourselves to tests that we couldn't even imagine we need? For all we know, the folks who died on Mission: Space might've died just as suddenly and tragically on Diamondback if they'd selected Kings Island as their destination instead of Epcot. And for all we know, they might've died in a terrible car accident en route! Either way, the push now is toward family attractions. So the cycle repeats, and so great, well-rounded parks become even stronger.

I was told on Thursday by the worker at the ticket booth that it will not. It is only valid at Kings Island. I do wonder, if other parks decide to offer this plan and you have a platinum, will you be able to put a plan from each park on your pass, or only one from the park at which the pass was processed? Or at that point, would they perhaps offer a "platinum season-long dining plan" good at all parks (for a much higher price, of course) But why for a much higher price? A day that you're eating at Cedar Point is a day you could have eaten at Kings Island, but aren't, right? I'm sure it would cost more, but that's not necessarily a logical progression, just a business one.

2013 – Last year's park map at Kings Dominion was a horrible hodge-podge of words with almost no value in terms of actually navigating. Of course, in typical Cedar Fair style the densely forested park was also drawn as if it was in a wide open field. 2014 – This year for seemingly no reason they did re-draw the map from scratch, making it even less realistic and showing the park from some really awkward extreme angle that's looking directly down on the park. WindSeeker looks like a carousel. All labels have been taken off the map and moved to the side where you can only locate attractions by quadrants on the map, but now the park looks like it has even LESS foliage. Easier to navigate for sure since you can actually see the path, but still odd. I don't know. For those of us who enjoy collecting park maps, Kings Dominion's has always been so laughably awkward and awful, and for them to bother to re-draw it this year but make it even WORSE is sort of hilarious.

Not to mention that the mere idea of spending $5 per person would undoubtedly turn some folks off, freeing up a very overcrowded water park.

https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/attractions/water-park-rides Extra fee will be $5.00. Could you see Kings Island doing something similar?

The 2014 Six Flags Great America park map has revealed that the waterpark Hurricane Harbor will be an "additional fee" for day guests without season passes. No word yet on if that "additional fee" will be a few dollar upgrade or a full secondary ticket like Cedar Point's Soak City. https://www.sixflags.com/sites/default/files/sfgam_fullmap.pdf Oddly, Great America's Hurricane Harbour does not have its own entrance or parking lot... the only way in is via a pathway near the back of the park. It'll be interesting to see the logistics of this. New ticket upgrade stations? Maybe the impending construction of a new second entrance directly into the park? Still, this will be interesting from many perspectives, one of which being the chance to see how locals react to this change, and how crowd levels change (which would be nice. Like our Soak City, Hurricane Harbor is as much a draw as the dry park and is usually prohibitively crowded)!

Yes, Banshee may be among the best roller coasters on Earth. They sure have moved a lot of earth in the construction of Banshee. The whole earth rejoiced at the announcement of Banshee. Riders on Banshee will fall to earth at a whopping 68 miles per hour.

Ah, I see. I understand that too. But recognize that all you can do is choose three rides. Then, the FastPass+ system will give you three schedules to choose from using your rides. You select one of the schedules that's pre-made for you. It would be very, very unlikely that you would have all three of your FastPass reservations before noon. The computer will automatically spread them throughout the day.

How this could be "violating the Americans with Disabilities Act," I couldn't even fathom a guess. It's not as though I know the law by heart, but c'mon now. Businesses are required not just to make reasonable accommodation, but to "provide an individualized assessment?" In education, certainly. But for a business - whether mom 'n' pop shop or international top ten company, because it can't be one or the other - to be required to make individual assessment of its customers who have freely chosen to spend their money there? So a parent can march into any local store and demand that their child's SPECIFIC disabilities be assessed, met, and catered to by that business or risk a lawsuit? My guess is that, unfortunately, Disney will settle with these families rather than risk bringing this to still more national attention or to change their policy, which is now working just fine for most guests. And let's face it - offered a few million from Disney, these families will go silent very happily and endure the supposed atrocities of this policy.

Disney is being sued for the changes to its disability access system. http://www.ocregister.com/articles/disney-608785-guests-policy.html To summarize this thread: Last year, both American resorts switched their accessibility programs following much-publicized abuse of the previous system. In the old Guest Assisstance Card (GAC) policy, almost any guest could obtain a GAC by visiting Guest Relations and mentioning something as simple as discomfort standing for long periods of time. The cards were issued for months at a time and good for parties of up to six guests. Anyone with a GAC could enter directly through an accessible entrance and board the ride, usually immediately, with no wait. The system was infamous for abuse, especially when it was uncovered that wealthy families were hiring "disabled" tour guides (some legitimate and some otherwise) for hundreds of dollars an hour to pose as their family and whisk them to the front of the line for immediate boarding unlimited times on every attraction in the park. The new Disability Access Service (DAS) is more restrictive in terms of who can have one, how long it's valid, and who can accompany the individual with a disability through the special queue. What's more, the DAS service works like Cedar Fair's disability pass: the individual or a member of his or her party must visit any of a half-dozen kiosks throughout each park to obtain a return time for the attraction. In other words, it's more of a virtual queue. If the line for Indiana Jones Adventure is 60 minutes, the cast member at the kiosk will write in a return time of 60 minutes from now (usually less a percentage due to the minimal time it takes to get to a kiosk). Groups can use the Fastpass system, too. Now, 16 families with children with autism are suing Disney, saying that the new system violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's mostly the families of individuals with autism who speak out against the new system, saying they'll never be able to take their children to Disneyland again. (As a special education teacher, I have my own opinion. Junior and his family can go enjoy some attractions that don't have waits while mom slips away to a nearby kiosk for a return time. We're doing no favors to individuals with autism if we say "They need immediate and constant gratification or else we can't do things. My child cannot be taught to defer pleasure. If he sees Space Mountain, he must go on it immediately. If he can't, then we'll just have to never go to Disneyland [/ leave the house] ever again." That's a tremendous disservice to the child. Is it easy? No. Will breakdowns occur? Certainly. But life is going to require deferred gratification. Disney isn't asking the child to walk up to the attraction, the back away from it. Simply to obtain a return time from a small kiosk.)

The new tweak works a little differently than that. You still pre-book three attractions in three time slots. You have to. The system only allows you to pre-book (or book in the park, at a kiosk) in groups of three. Once you have used all three pre-booked Fastpasses, you can add one more. Once you've used that additional one, you can add yet another. You have to use all three of your pre-booked ones before you can beginning adding additional reservations. So if you plan to take advantage of that, remember that if the last of your original three Fastpass+ windows is from say, 7:10 - 8:10 and the park closes at 9:00, you may not be able to have an additional one afterwards, and certainly not more than one. You won't be able to add a fourth bonus reservation until after you've used your third... 7:10 at the earliest. By that point, you may find no additional Fastpasses left for the evening for the major attractions. Not that that's some horrible element of this system - regular old paper Fastpasses would've been sold out by 7:00 on a 9:00 closing night, too. Similarly, if you use a Fastpass+ pre-booked reservation on priority seating at a park's nighttime show (fireworks, Fantasmic, Illuminations, etc) you will not be able to take advantage of this new caveat since your third reservation will likely match up with the park's closing time.

I think the transitions do look a little rough, but like Arrow, that seems like the style Chance uses. Of course they could have butter smooth transitions since we're beyond the time in history when these coasters were bent on site, but that's just not their design. I continue to worry that Lightning Run is a really nice family coaster that's being marketed as the anchor of a whole theme park. In many, many ways, it resembles Kennywood's Skyrocket. If Kentucky Kingdom manages to get as many visitors as it hopes for, the line for Lightning Run may be prohibitively long, and guests exiting may have a similar point of view to those who wait an hour for Backlot Stunt Coaster... Just a thought.

It's troubling to think that the coaster can be THAT irreparable. All the rumors I've heard pointed to a fault with the train. Then again, if it were that simple, there would already be new trains and it would be open... Very odd.

Hey, I liked it too. But one question to ask is, at what point does it stop being enjoyable to a large enough chunk of people that it's not worth the cost to operate it (keeping in mind that Son of Beast had an unusually high cost)? And the more important question is, at what point is it irresponsible or unreasonable to allow people to ride it? What kind of warning can you give? Do announcements in the station that it is a "highly aggressive" thrill ride really portray the ride experience for as intense as it is? What about the fact that Son of Beast and Backlot Stunt Coaster are both "5 / 5" in a Rider Safety Guide? Some people like ultra-intense things but Son of Beast was an unusual case.

Cutting corners surely didn't help, but what amount of investment could've made a traditional woodie of that size into a pleasant experience at the time? If they had followed the designer's instructions to the letter and poured in twice as much money as they did, they'd still have a 200 foot tall wooden roller coaster that delivered a very rough experience. It's telling that, even in the 15 years since where most of the top ten woodies are supplemented by Iron Horse track or made of pre-fab wood that deliver steel-like experience, still no one has topped Son of Beast's attempts at height or speed. And that's with glass-smooth track and unparalleled technological backing. I just don't think Son of Beast stood a chance being made by that manufacturer at that time. Paramount certainly compounded the problem and dug a hole for itself and Cedar Fair, but I can't imagine many parallel universes where Son of Beast is a top ten coaster. Now, if they'd had the patience, wherewithal, and funds to wait a few years and see the incredible advances we'd have in "wooden" coaster technology through experienced manufacturers, Son of Beast may be around today, and as revered as El Toro, New Texas Giant, or Colossos. We'll never know!

It's just a shame Paramount couldn't wait five, three, even one year before embarking on a hyper-woodie. I think a Son of Beast built in 2002 would have fared much differently than the one opened in 2000. That would also require that Paramount was willing to invest, though, and that actually seems less likely to have been the case in later years.

Kings Island's Coney Island probably could have stood on its own in the era!

Oh good, someone is going to try the "theme park inside a theme park" thing again. Let the confusion ensue.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the proposed bill would outlaw their captivity for entertainment purposes. SeaWorld San Diego is accredited through the AZA up to March 2015 as of now, and it doesn't seem likely that their designation as a zoological park will be ended at that time. If this bill were to pass, could SeaWorld not continue to care for and house orcas through its zoo program, eliminating the "entertainment" aspect? We also know, despite Blackfish's claims, that those orcas can't be released into the wild. It seems logical that any animal raised in captivity is going to be unsuited for the wild unless rehabilitation toward release is part of their life throughout captivity. I'm no expert, but it seems like SeaWorld is almost entirely a traditional zoo with a few select animals trained for entertainment. Not that it would be ideal for their marketing and business plan, but could that "entertainment" aspect just fade away if need be?

Parents may the next morning when the kids are whining about being exhausted.

You'd definitely need sleeping bags. Unless you do three to a bed and one on the couch. Woof. Four flatscreen TVs though!

Not the time and place for this discussion, but suffice it to say: Please don't yell. There's no reason to use humongous font. It doesn't get your point across any more effectively. Before posting a whole bunch of new topics, I'd suggest (as we do for all new members) that you first get involved in some old ones. Read more than you write at first, and get used to the way we communicate here - what we ask, how we ask it, how we reply, what format we use... You won't find anyone else using size 24 font, bolded, and centered. Just helpful hints! Nothing personal. Everyone here started off new at one point, and had to learn how to communicate.

Would your logical first stop not be Kings Island's official website? Isn't clicking there, then clicking "season passes" (as I have linked to below) easier than posting a question here and waiting for one of us to do that work, then answering you? Why would any of us want to do that very simple work for you? https://www.visitkingsisland.com/ticket-category/2014-Season-Passes The larger, bolded text doesn't get your message across any more effectively. In fact, it's irritating and against the terms of service of this site.